Dexia Credit Local v. Rogan, 09-2986

By FindLaw Staff on November 24, 2010 4:12 PM

Judgment creditor's request for turnover of defendant's assets held in trusts in the names of defendant's children

Dexia Credit Local v. Rogan, 09-2986, concerned a plaintiff's suit for supplemental proceedings, requesting turnover of assets held in trusts that defendant had established, including trusts in the names of each of defendant's three adult children, to satisfy a $124 million judgment against defendant.

In affirming the district court's judgment ordering the turnover to plaintiff of nearly all assets of the defendant's children's trusts and terminating the children's interests in those trusts, the court affirmed the district court's determination regarding subject matter jurisdiction as complete diversity of citizenship exists. The court held that the retroactive application of Rule 21 rendered the judgment final and enforceable against the remaining parties, and the district court did not err in allowing the matter to proceed upon the citations that had already issued. The court also held that the district court did not exceed the broad power and authority that is granted to courts in supplemental proceedings to apply assets to satisfy a judgment.

Further, defendant's children were not entitled to have a jury decide whether defendant owned and controlled the assets that were held in the children's trusts, and the statute of limitations and the statute of repose cited by defendant's children did not bar the supplemental proceedings. The court rejected defendant's children's challenge to the district court's findings of fact, and concluded that there is no error in the district court's imposition of a constructive trust on all but $30,000 of the trust assets. The court also rejected defendant's children's claim that there was insufficient evidence that any of the citation respondents held defendant's property, and held that the Illinois's supplementary proceedings statute contemplates the relief ordered by the district court in this case and the defendant's children have pointed to no authority showing that Illinois's statute violates due process.

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